


The Years Before

by phenomenology



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3799825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phenomenology/pseuds/phenomenology
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ezra never really understood his parents. He knew that their family was different, though; and he loved them anyway. Ezra also knew that his parents were brave, strong, and kind. And Ezra wanted to be just like them one day. (Young!Ezra; pre-Rebels era)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Years Before

**Author's Note:**

  * For [candiedrhododendrons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/candiedrhododendrons/gifts).



_There was a time_

_I used to look into my father's eyes_

_In a happy home_

_..._

_Those days are gone._

_~ Swedish House Mafia_

* * *

Ezra was six years old and he and his parents were underground. Again. They had been coming down here more and more frequently as time went on. The first time Ezra had been down into his parent’s underground room was almost a year ago, and it was mostly Ezra’s fault.

His parents had taken Ezra out to the marketplace to get some supplies when Ezra wandered over to a vendor on the other side of the street, away from his parents. A stormtrooper had been harassing the vendor about money and Ezra could see the man was scared. So Ezra toddled up to the armored soldier and promptly kicked the trooper’s leg with his tiny foot. 

“You’re not supposed to bully people!” Ezra had cried indignantly up at the stormtrooper, his cry drawing the attention of several passersby, wondering how the trooper might react to this child. Ezra’s tiny fists were clenched defiantly as the trooper craned his neck downward at Ezra and scoffed.

“Run along, kid. You’re in over your head.” The trooper had then turned back to the vendor, causing Ezra to become infuriated that he was being ignored.

“Hey!” Ezra shouted, kicking the trooper’s leg again. Annoyed, the trooper sharply turned to face the kid and growled, “Where are your parents? Shouldn’t you be with them?” 

At that moment, Ezra’s mother came rushing up through the crowd. She had worn a thin veil that covered her face that day because she was uncomfortable with the intensity of the sun. It allowed her to shield her face from the trooper a bit as she scooped Ezra up into her arms and ducked her head apologetically. Her and her husband had been broadcasting their anti-Imperial messages for about a half a year now, and the Empire was beginning to pick up on their transmissions, making everyday tasks, like going to the market, more and more dangerous for the Bridger family.

“I’m so sorry about my son!” she said quickly. “He slipped away from us without our notice. He just has a very strong moral sense.” Straightening up a bit, she looked at the trooper and said very softly, “Though I believe my son is correct in saying you shouldn’t be harassing this vendor.”

The trooper’s hands grew tighter around the blaster he was holding. He was becoming very irritated with this woman and her son. Though the growing crowd discouraged him from dealing with them violently.

“Move along!” he barked harshly at them. When Ezra’s mother didn’t move, the trooper pointed his blaster at her, drawing cries of fear and shock from the on looking crowd. Ezra’s mother, however, did not flinch and instead stared defiantly into the visor of the stormtrooper.

“Mira!” Ezra’s father called, pushing through the crowd and grabbing his wife’s arm, putting himself between her and the trooper. “Not here, Mira,” he said in a low, warning tone. “Not with Ezra here.”

Mira drew her gaze away from the trooper and looked up at her husband, then down at Ezra, whose eyes were now large with fear as he clung to his mother’s shirt. Nodding, Mira stepped back as her husband turned to the trooper.

“Our apologies. We’ll be moving along now. But I suggest that you do the same, considering the crowd this fiasco seems to have drawn.” Ezra’s father didn’t outright say that he disagreed with the trooper’s actions, but he conveyed the message of his discontent through his suggestion well enough.

The trooper was quiet as he studied the pair and their child in front of him. Something about them was poking at his mind, as if he should remember them from somewhere.

Suddenly, it clicked and he reached up to activate his comm. Urgently, the trooper said, “This is trooper LS-421. I’ve found the Bridger’s on the streets of the marketplace. Send backup!”

As soon as he was finished speaking, he pointed his gun at the Bridger’s and shouted, “Don’t move! You’re under arrest for illegal broadcasting against the Empire!”

Clutching Ezra to her chest as he whimpered in fear, Mira stepped closer to her husband. Mira hissed quietly to her husband as he stood protectively in front of her and Ezra, “Now what do we do, Ephraim?” 

“We run,” he whispered back. “Go!”

Mira squeezed her husband’s arm before she turned and sprinted back the way they had come, holding Ezra close to her. The crowd parted for her as she bolted towards her home. As she fled, Mira could hear the sounds of blaster fire behind her and her heart crawled into her throat. She almost stopped; she almost turned around to go back to her husband’s side.

But almost as if Ephraim could tell what she was thinking, his voice sounded behind her, not to far away, shouting, “Mira, don’t stop! I’m right behind you! Just get Ezra back to the house!”

With renewed courage at hearing her husband’s voice, Mira pushed herself to go faster and swung around a corner, barreled down the street, and finally swung around another corner before skidding to a halt in front of her door.

Heart racing, Mira fished out her key and quickly opened the door. She put Ezra down and ushered him inside where he promptly crawled up onto the sofa and hugged a pillow to his chest as he watched his mother with wide, frightened eyes.

Mira stood in the doorway, waiting anxiously for Ephraim to come around the corner. She didn’t wait very long as moments later, Ephraim swung around the corner and sprinted towards Mira, his robes fluttering frantically out behind him as he moved.

“Get inside!” he called to her, waving his hand at Mira. “Hurry! They aren’t far behind!” 

Mira turned and ducked inside, kneeling in front of Ezra and gently ran her fingers through her son’s hair. 

“Sweetie? Are you okay?” she asked softly. Ezra was trembling underneath her touch, his arms encircled tightly around the pillow in his lap. The fact that the pillow was almost as big as Ezra reminded Mira of how young and small her son was, and she had to fight back tears for a moment. She hated dragging Ezra into all of this, but she knew that he needed to understand how cruel the Empire really was.

“It’s okay, baby,” Mira soothed. “We won’t let the troopers hurt you.”

“Promise?” Ezra asked in a small voice, peaking up at his mother from where he had buried his face in the soft surface of the pillow.

“I promise,” Mira said fondly as she kissed her son’s forehead. Behind her, Ephraim removed the covering of the entrance to their underground room.

“Mira,” he whispered urgently. “Take Ezra down there now. The trooper called for re-enforcements and will be here any moment. We can’t be up here when they arrive.”

Mira nodded and scooped Ezra up in her arms, pillow and all, before descending the ladder that led to the broadcasting room she and her husband used. Ephraim followed her, pulling the covering back overtop the entrance and joining his wife and son underground.

 <:>

That had been the first in a steadily increasing number of times Ezra and his parent’s had hidden out in the underground room. Now, almost a year later, Ezra was sitting down there again, thinking about that very first time, as he fiddled with a small cube of gears and other spare parts that he had constructed together. Even at such a young age, Ezra’s father had shown him how to build and manipulate small devices. And Ezra was getting pretty good at it.

As Ezra turned the small creation over in his little hands, he could still remember the fear that had coursed through him when he had listened the troopers moving around upstairs a year ago. They had been trying to find Ezra and his parents before they had given up and decided that the Bridger’s had escaped through some back entrance and then left to search the streets. 

Now, Ezra sat on the old, worn sofa that his parents kept down here, watching as they fiddled with one of their broadcasters. They were trying to fix some wires or something. Bored of watching from afar, Ezra pushed himself off the sofa and trotted over to his parents, pulling himself up onto an empty chair. He stared at the colorful and intricate design of wires as his parents work.

“Dad?” he piped up from his father’s shoulder, drawing Ephraim’s attention to his son. “Shouldn’t that red one there be connected with that blue one there?” Ezra said curiously, pointing at the wires in question.

Ephraim looked at the wires and then back at Ezra, shocked and impressed. “You’re right, Ezra. Looks like you have been paying attention when your mother and I fiddle with these things.”

Ezra puffed up his little chest with pride as his father reconnected the red wire and the broadcaster came to life with a short burst of static. Ephraim ruffled Ezra’s hair and started to put his tools away. 

From above, the Bridger’s heard the troopers wrench open their door and barge inside, calling out threats and throwing things about as they searched for the rebellious family.

Ezra flinched in fear as one trooper threw something aside very close to the table that covered the entrance. Mira looked at her son and smiled reassuringly, opening her arms in a gesture for Ezra to come sit on her lap. 

Ezra eagerly scrambled over to her from his chair and sat sideways on her lap as she held him close. Mira quietly kissed the top of Ezra’s head in a comforting gesture as the family settled into silence. Mira started to gently run her fingers through Ezra’s short hair and rocked him gently on her lap, reassuring her son without words that everything would be all right. Ephraim had stopped moving his tools around and sat very still. He reached out and took one of Mira’s hands in his own and smiled warmly down at Ezra.

The troopers continued to move about and shout things to each other. Every time they came, they made more and more of a mess in the Bridger’s home. Ephraim was convinced that the troopers continued these raids merely for the sick joy they got in destroying his home. Things were getting so dangerous for their family that they had to rely mostly on friends to get the supplies they needed. Ephraim and Mira hardly ever left their home anymore but continued their broadcasts from this room. Ezra still went out every now and again with some of their friends. It was mostly on Mira’s insistence that their son live as normally as possible, even if it wasn’t the two of them taking Ezra out to the marketplace to buy treats or play with some of the neighborhood children.

As the turmoil above started to cease, Mira looked up at the ceiling and continued to run her fingers comfortingly through Ezra’s hair. Her son was leaning against her shoulder, eyes closed and breathing steadily, so she assumed he had fallen asleep, despite the noise upstairs. 

When all was quiet again, Mira and Ephraim looked at each other, still holding hands as Ezra slept on Mira’s lap.

“He can’t keep living like this, Ephraim,” Mira whispered, her eyes brimming with tears and filled with desperation. “Maybe we could send him to Tseebo or Morad Sumar until we find a safer way to do this.”

Ephraim squeezed Mira’s hand and cupped her face with his other hand. “Mira, he’ll be in danger whether he’s with us or not. I don’t want him to live like this anymore than you do, but it’s essential he understands everything that we’ve worked for.”

“He’s just a child!” Mira said, her voice pitching upwards in despair, clasping a hand over her mouth and trying to steady herself.

“He deserves a normal childhood,” Mira said in a more controlled voice as she started to run her fingers through Ezra’s hair again. “And I want him to understand as much as you do but I want him to live a life that doesn’t involve constantly having to retreat underground and hope that a stormtrooper doesn’t knock aside the covering and drop down here and shoot us!”

Ephraim sighed and lowered his head, his shoulders hunching slightly as he slowly moved his eyes back up to Mira’s. His expression now betrayed his exhaustion, his burdened position making him seem older than he was.

“Mira, I think about that too. But I believe that this is what’s best for Ezra. If we keep him with us, he can learn everything we have to teach him. And hopefully, one day, our brave little boy will help lead the rebellion against the Empire.” Ephraim looked down at their son fondly, his eyes sparkling with adoration at Ezra’s young, sleeping face.

Mira sighed wearily and nodded as Ephraim removed his hand from her face. She gave his other hand a squeeze before sliding her own out from underneath his. Mira tucked a lose strand of Ezra’s hair aside and scooped him up as she stood. She then bent down and kissed Ephraim on the cheek.

“I should get him to bed. It’s been a long day and we have to clean up the house tomorrow morning.” 

Ephraim watched Mira walk towards a small bed that they kept in the back of the room. He picked up a nearby holo-disc and inserted it into the console next to him. The machine whirred to life and a holographic picture flickered up in front of him. Ephraim smiled at the photo of himself, Mira, and Ezra. It had been taken a week before Mira and Ephraim had decided that leaving the house was too much of a risk for the two of them.

Ephraim’s eyes wandered over to where Mira was now tucking Ezra into bed and he smiled softly.

“One day, Ezra,” he whispered to himself. “One day you’ll understand all of this. And you’ll make us proud.”

**Author's Note:**

> I believe it was candiedrhododendrons that asked for a story about toddler!Ezra and this is what spawned out of it.


End file.
